I would like to say now that I posted this for its humourous value only. I never expected it to get to the +5, Interesting where it stands right now. If he responds and says "get a life" I will _not_ be held accountable.
There was probably a scramble like this back when DVD-ROMs were changing from RPC1 (region free in the hardware, only software region-enforced) to RPC2 (regions enforced in the hardware.)
Even after the broadcast flag is enforced, I'm sure there will be firmware hacks or whatnot available to ignore the broadcast flag. Really, for almost all DVD-ROM/R/Rw hardware out there, you can just patch the firmware and it's totally RPC1.
Bow to your Canadian overlords and get one from North of the border when you come for cheap medicine, flu shots, abortions, cuban cigars and maple syrup! Bwahaha, eh!
"I still have some archives I burnt to CD-R from way back in 1999. That archive is getting quite extensive, I'd be very upset if I had to reburn that archive every year to avoid media rot. Due to OS reinstalls and FAT32 file corruption, most of my archives are now the sole surviving copy of previous backups."
Um. If you have only a single copy, your data is _not_ backed up, even if that single copy is on write-once non-magnetic media. Go and burn a second copy of those discs. Now.
Yes, exactly. AOL has had its day. But those millions of clueless newbs are starting to understand what the internet is all about, and thus do not need expensive hand holding. But they don't need this 'halfway house' anymore, so they move onto a better service.
"This is not meant to be derogatory --- I'm simply curious as to who these millions are and why they stick with a service that is slow, cumbersome and expensive."
For the same reason you keep paying for the services of your current bank, even though the employees are clueless and the fees are stupid. Regardless of how much better things would be with a better service provider, it's too much hassle to switch.
One of the disturbing things about phishing is that, in general, you are always vulnerable, regardless of your platform. Phishing is not a virus and does not have to exploit security holes. First and foremost, phishing relies on the gullibility of the user. Even if you are reading your mail on pine via ssh, this in itself provides you no protection from being conned by some nigerian scheme or receiving message 'from' PayPal requesting that you 'verify' your profile through some web server in China hosting www.paypalsys.com. (Yes, www.paypalsys.com was actually used for fraud.)
Just because you use pine or OS X or linux does not mean you can sit back and smirk at people who use Windows / Outbreak Express. The primary defence against phishing is critical thinking skills, not technology. Do not be conned into a false sense of security. Phishing is simply a technological incarnation of a kind of scam that has gone on well before the internet. Always keep your critical thinking skills in gear, as that is where real protection from phishing is gained.
And before you flame, I do acknowledge that said non-majority systems like OS X, pine, etc do help protect you from some of the technological vectors used to facilitate phishing, like HTML tricks to obscure the real destination of a link or the URL bar in MSIE. But once again, phishing is not a technological phenomenon. It is a social phenomenon and has social solutions. Patching the security holes will do very little to stop phishing on the whole.
Yes, the hosting I pay for uses cPanel and I quite like it. My only wishes are that it was documented more thoroughly and the e-mail forwarder configuration was better designed (i.e. into something like directNIC.com uses.)
"Let's write an HTTP daemon in Perl and use it to serve up the user portion of the control panel instead of using Apache
Having written that daemon, let's run it on port 2086, again ease of use for the customers"
"Actually, as an end-user of CPanel, I've found this quite useful in that I can crawl in and check the statuses of my site, even when Apache bombs out."
You misunderstand. This is not a good idea because it prevents remote administration for many users behind proxies that only allow outbound access to ports 443, 80, 23, and 21. (Respectively, these are https, http, ssh and ftp.) Good luck trying to adminster your personal site when on break at work.
It has already been clearly established that the iPod is not a 'backup' medium and it is not acceptable to store the 'only' copies of your music on it. Quite regularly, answers in Apple's troubleshooting tips for iPod problems instruct the user to restore the Pod, which returns it to the completely empty default-install state.
So why would anyone be silly enough to keep the only copies of their music on their iPod, forcing them to then use this tool? With iTunes, you can't even get music onto the Pod without first importing it into the library. So it's a given that the music is already on your computer. (And where did it come from? If absolutely necessary, you can re-rip your CDs, or copy from your burned backups for iTMS or illegal music downloads.)
So tell me, is there a legitimate reason for your only copy of any song to be exclusively stored on your iPod?
"Most Mac users are professionals and are reasonably aware of the dangers of downloading and executing evil software. If the Mac had as large a base of clueless users as Windows does there would be a lot more evil stuff targeted towards them. There's just no good reason to spend a lot of effort targeting Macs."
I think it has to do with the fact that there is much malware written for OS X, and that the OS Security model is better to begin. There is no root account and there are no ports open by default.
"Most CD/DVDs are FAR more vulnerable to damage by being scratched through the top side. The bottom side has most of thickness of the disc (clear, resilient plastic) between the surface and the data medium."
I suggest that you actually get a CD-R and a (single layer) DVDR and compare them. In the CD-R the thickness is at the bottom and the data layer is at the top as you say.
Now look at the DVDR. The data layer is at the bottom and the thickness is at the top.
"Unfortunately, that's not been my experience with burning DVDs for backing up Digital Video - after a few months, the disks are largely unreadable. This has been noted by many others who try to back up DV on DVD."
It depends. Most of the media out there is pure trash. Lots of HongKong fakes are on the market too. People get this stuff for cheap and then complain when it fails. Furthermore, people don't understand that the name brand is usually not the company that manufactures the disc. Companies like Memorex, Dynex, TDK, Alera, HP, Apple, Kodak and Fuji do not actually manufacture the DVDR discs that they sell! They buy and rebrand from other companies!* Of course you don't necessarily know what company they are buying from. There are subtle clues like the "Made in (Taiwan|Singapore|Japan|India|etc)" mark on them. Only if you know who actually makes the disc (Mitsubishi, Taiyo Yuden, Ricoh, Pioneer, Ritek, etc) can you get an idea of how long they will live. And many people who compain about their CDR or DVDR discs dying went and bought counterfeit or just plain cheap media from questionable sources. This is not to say that the 'good' media doesn't fail: Poor burner firmware, bad handling, humid environments, bad batches of discs, etc can also contribute to this.
*Note: Some of Fuji's CDR are actually made by Fuji, but not all. Kodak does not make their own anymore, which is a big shame. Their Gold Ultima media was excellent.
When you actually get good quality media and then write it with a properly firmware-patched DVD burner and store it in a climate controlled environment, it lasts. My burns on genuine Taiyo Yuden DVD-R from a year ago are still perfectly readable. My burns on genuine T-Y CD-R from 1996 are still perfectly readable. Of course those DVDR cost me CDN$3 per disc (at the time, they're cheaper now.)
"Whilst I agree that they are cheaper I like to keep my movies on 700mb disc simply to avoid keeping all my eggs in the same basket."
Spreading your data across more discs is not a substitute for true backup copy. There are simply more discs in the system that have a chance of failing.
I burn my stuff to duplicate DVD+R, typically one copy on RICOHJPN discs and another on MCC discs. It is in this way that I know a bad burn or faulty batch of discs are unlikely to ruin my day.
Additionally, having a lot of CD-Rs is a waste of physical space. I have seven binders alone of CD-Rs and I am running out of shelf space! Knowing that those seven binders can be converted to ONE binder of DVDR is a big incentive for switching to recordable DVD.
"http://www.plextor.com/english/products/716A.htm That is plextors 16x DVD burner that will also burn dual layer @ 4x. Personally, after my experience with the PX-708A, I wouldn't buy it. I've already had to send my drive in for RMA, and about 2 months ago, the new drive stopped reading/writing cds."
I'm on my second PX-708A, which works pretty well. (The first one actually left scuffs on CD media, both pressed and (re)writeable. And it only read them at 4X speed.) But yes, I think the main contendors in the current generation of DVDR are Pioneer, NEC and BENQ. While I've been a Plextor loyalist for years now, the Plextors have become just too expensive and have too many quality control problems for me to care.
"If the coating (which has the above effect) is applied to both sides, how will you label them? (as it stands, I use matte labels, but for quick copies (running out the door), the above situation may apply)."
Put the pen-writeable surface on top of the polymer.
Or perhaps political and technical issues are so intertwined that political discussion is valid on this site. Wiretapping. Copyright. DMCA. P2P. VoIP. Fair use. WiFi Security. Anti-spam/spyware laws. I think that debating and discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each choice is important in the process of democracy. Geeks are as much subject to the US Government as anyone else.
"You have to understand that this myth of "turn on an unpatched computer & watch your comp get swarmed with virii!" is just that, a myth. I don't know anybody who has actually had this happen to them."
I paid for many of my university textbooks by shovelling out said machines. Home after home. Family after family. Box after box. Put a typical out-of-the-box windows machine into a home with an average family and it will get filled with spyware, trojans and viruses. It doesn't take long. My bank account balance is the proof.
"Yes. Go to eBay & check out the prices on used IBM notebooks."
Compare PC to mac desktops in resalability and you will see what I mean. Notebooks are practically a 'speciality' market because they typically can't be built out of commodity parts. This is also part of why mac desktops have better resale value, the other major part and the reason why I wouldn't use mac for gaming is that the have longer term viability.
Slashdot Mirror
I switched from buying new CDs to buying used ones. It saves money and puts dents in the RIAA statistics.
I would like to say now that I posted this for its humourous value only. I never expected it to get to the +5, Interesting where it stands right now. If he responds and says "get a life" I will _not_ be held accountable.
Which captain do you think was the best?
You'd know, I guess. ;)
Even after the broadcast flag is enforced, I'm sure there will be firmware hacks or whatnot available to ignore the broadcast flag. Really, for almost all DVD-ROM/R/Rw hardware out there, you can just patch the firmware and it's totally RPC1.
Bow to your Canadian overlords and get one from North of the border when you come for cheap medicine, flu shots, abortions, cuban cigars and maple syrup! Bwahaha, eh!
Um. If you have only a single copy, your data is _not_ backed up, even if that single copy is on write-once non-magnetic media. Go and burn a second copy of those discs. Now.
My geek intuition tells me that this text will become the next AYBABTU.
Yes, exactly. AOL has had its day. But those millions of clueless newbs are starting to understand what the internet is all about, and thus do not need expensive hand holding. But they don't need this 'halfway house' anymore, so they move onto a better service.
For the same reason you keep paying for the services of your current bank, even though the employees are clueless and the fees are stupid. Regardless of how much better things would be with a better service provider, it's too much hassle to switch.
Just because you use pine or OS X or linux does not mean you can sit back and smirk at people who use Windows / Outbreak Express. The primary defence against phishing is critical thinking skills, not technology. Do not be conned into a false sense of security. Phishing is simply a technological incarnation of a kind of scam that has gone on well before the internet. Always keep your critical thinking skills in gear, as that is where real protection from phishing is gained.
And before you flame, I do acknowledge that said non-majority systems like OS X, pine, etc do help protect you from some of the technological vectors used to facilitate phishing, like HTML tricks to obscure the real destination of a link or the URL bar in MSIE. But once again, phishing is not a technological phenomenon. It is a social phenomenon and has social solutions. Patching the security holes will do very little to stop phishing on the whole.
Correction:
ALL HAIL CANADA
The preceding was a joke, eh.
Yes, I wish my host allowed for ssh admin access.
Yes, the hosting I pay for uses cPanel and I quite like it. My only wishes are that it was documented more thoroughly and the e-mail forwarder configuration was better designed (i.e. into something like directNIC.com uses.)
"Actually, as an end-user of CPanel, I've found this quite useful in that I can crawl in and check the statuses of my site, even when Apache bombs out."
You misunderstand. This is not a good idea because it prevents remote administration for many users behind proxies that only allow outbound access to ports 443, 80, 23, and 21. (Respectively, these are https, http, ssh and ftp.) Good luck trying to adminster your personal site when on break at work.
It has already been clearly established that the iPod is not a 'backup' medium and it is not acceptable to store the 'only' copies of your music on it. Quite regularly, answers in Apple's troubleshooting tips for iPod problems instruct the user to restore the Pod, which returns it to the completely empty default-install state.
So why would anyone be silly enough to keep the only copies of their music on their iPod, forcing them to then use this tool? With iTunes, you can't even get music onto the Pod without first importing it into the library. So it's a given that the music is already on your computer. (And where did it come from? If absolutely necessary, you can re-rip your CDs, or copy from your burned backups for iTMS or illegal music downloads.)
So tell me, is there a legitimate reason for your only copy of any song to be exclusively stored on your iPod?
much less malware
Sorry, I'm tired.
I think it has to do with the fact that there is much malware written for OS X, and that the OS Security model is better to begin. There is no root account and there are no ports open by default.
I suggest that you actually get a CD-R and a (single layer) DVDR and compare them. In the CD-R the thickness is at the bottom and the data layer is at the top as you say.
Now look at the DVDR. The data layer is at the bottom and the thickness is at the top.
It depends. Most of the media out there is pure trash. Lots of HongKong fakes are on the market too. People get this stuff for cheap and then complain when it fails. Furthermore, people don't understand that the name brand is usually not the company that manufactures the disc. Companies like Memorex, Dynex, TDK, Alera, HP, Apple, Kodak and Fuji do not actually manufacture the DVDR discs that they sell! They buy and rebrand from other companies!* Of course you don't necessarily know what company they are buying from. There are subtle clues like the "Made in (Taiwan|Singapore|Japan|India|etc)" mark on them. Only if you know who actually makes the disc (Mitsubishi, Taiyo Yuden, Ricoh, Pioneer, Ritek, etc) can you get an idea of how long they will live. And many people who compain about their CDR or DVDR discs dying went and bought counterfeit or just plain cheap media from questionable sources. This is not to say that the 'good' media doesn't fail: Poor burner firmware, bad handling, humid environments, bad batches of discs, etc can also contribute to this.
*Note: Some of Fuji's CDR are actually made by Fuji, but not all. Kodak does not make their own anymore, which is a big shame. Their Gold Ultima media was excellent.
When you actually get good quality media and then write it with a properly firmware-patched DVD burner and store it in a climate controlled environment, it lasts. My burns on genuine Taiyo Yuden DVD-R from a year ago are still perfectly readable. My burns on genuine T-Y CD-R from 1996 are still perfectly readable. Of course those DVDR cost me CDN$3 per disc (at the time, they're cheaper now.)
Spreading your data across more discs is not a substitute for true backup copy. There are simply more discs in the system that have a chance of failing.
I burn my stuff to duplicate DVD+R, typically one copy on RICOHJPN discs and another on MCC discs. It is in this way that I know a bad burn or faulty batch of discs are unlikely to ruin my day.
Additionally, having a lot of CD-Rs is a waste of physical space. I have seven binders alone of CD-Rs and I am running out of shelf space! Knowing that those seven binders can be converted to ONE binder of DVDR is a big incentive for switching to recordable DVD.
I'm on my second PX-708A, which works pretty well. (The first one actually left scuffs on CD media, both pressed and (re)writeable. And it only read them at 4X speed.) But yes, I think the main contendors in the current generation of DVDR are Pioneer, NEC and BENQ. While I've been a Plextor loyalist for years now, the Plextors have become just too expensive and have too many quality control problems for me to care.
Put the pen-writeable surface on top of the polymer.
Or perhaps political and technical issues are so intertwined that political discussion is valid on this site. Wiretapping. Copyright. DMCA. P2P. VoIP. Fair use. WiFi Security. Anti-spam/spyware laws. I think that debating and discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each choice is important in the process of democracy. Geeks are as much subject to the US Government as anyone else.
- Not an American
I paid for many of my university textbooks by shovelling out said machines. Home after home. Family after family. Box after box. Put a typical out-of-the-box windows machine into a home with an average family and it will get filled with spyware, trojans and viruses. It doesn't take long. My bank account balance is the proof.
"Yes. Go to eBay & check out the prices on used IBM notebooks."
Compare PC to mac desktops in resalability and you will see what I mean. Notebooks are practically a 'speciality' market because they typically can't be built out of commodity parts. This is also part of why mac desktops have better resale value, the other major part and the reason why I wouldn't use mac for gaming is that the have longer term viability.